Re-Enchanting Photography: Book Launch and Exhibition

• Ernst van Alphen presents his new book, Re-Enchanting Photography, interviewing the artists featured in the book
• The launch coincides with the opening of a special exhibition curated by Ernst van Alphen, featuring works by Amie Dicke, Geert Goiris, Paul Kooiker, Juul Kraijer and Viviane Sassen

What: Book Launch, Interview and Exhibition
Where: Buro Onrust, Planciusstraat 7, 1013 MD Amsterdam
When: Thursday 19 November 2026, 14:00–18:00 hrs
Language: English
Admission: Free; please register through: emily@valiz.nl

On the occasion of his new book, Re-Enchanting Photography: Contemporary Art and Surrealism, Ernst van Alphen has curated an exhibition at Buro Onrust, featuring works by the five contemporary artists featured in the book. In advance of the festive opening of the exhibition, author Ernst van Alphen will enter into conversation with Paul Kooiker, Amie Dicke, Juul Kraijer and Geert Goiris, exploring how their work can be better understood through the framework of surrealism. This is followed by a book talk between Ernst van Alphen and Valiz. Following the presentation, there will be food and drinks for those present.

Ernst van Alphen is professor emeritus of Literary Studies at Leiden University. Before that, he was Queen Beatrix Professor of Dutch Studies at UC Berkeley. His fields of research and expertise are cultural analysis, trauma and affect studies, and gender studies. He is particularly interested in issues that are central in modern and postmodern literature and in the relation between literature and the visual arts. His most recent publications include: Trauma and Affect (Valiz 2026), Seven Logics of Sculpture (Valiz 2023), Productive Archiving (ed. Valiz 2023), Shame! and Masculinity (ed. Valiz 2021), among others.

Amie Dicke (Rotterdam, 1978) studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy. Her practice is characterized by careful removal, selection, and omission, which give rise to new meanings and associations within existing images. In Political Horizon (2017), she rendered the familiar body language of politicians in blue suits, as seen in the news media, suggestive by enlarging and selectively erasing it. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Tate Modern in London and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. Dicke lives and works in Amsterdam.

Geert Goiris (Bornem, 1971) is a photographer. He travels the world in search of unusual places, which he interprets in enigmatic images. These images are deliberately detached from any specific era, making it seem as though we are looking simultaneously at the past and the future. Since the early 2000s, he has been developing a photographic practice in which he challenges the medium’s claim to truthfulness. Recent exhibitions include: ‘Silent Earth,’ Deutsche Börse AG, The Cube, Eschborn, 2020; ‘World Without Us,’ Biennale de la photographie de Mulhouse, Hombourg, 2020; ‘Terraforming Fantasies,’ Palazzo De’ Toschi, Bologna, 2019; ‘World Without Us,’ Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, 2018. His work is included in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, among others. Goiris lives and works in Antwerp.

Paul Kooiker (Rotterdam, 1964) is a photographer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (1990–92). He received the Prix de Rome for photography (1996) and the A. Roland Holst Prize for his body of work (2009). Recent exhibitions include: ‘Nude Animal Cigar’, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, 2024; ‘Fashion,’ Fotomuseum Amsterdam (Foam), 2022–23, Museum Folkwang, Essen, 2021–22; ‘Full Moon,’ Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, 2020; ‘De tranen van Eros’ [The Tears of Eros], Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 2020; ‘Animalia’, Garage Rotterdam, 2020; ‘Eggs and Rarities,’ FOMU Fotomuseum, Antwerp, 2018; ‘B is for Bird’, Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen, 2018. His work is included in international public and private collections.

Juul Kraijer (Assen, 1970) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam in 1994. She began with monumental charcoal drawings; her practice now also includes sculptures, photographs, collages, and video, all thematically closely linked. Recent exhibitions include: ‘Metamorphoses,’ Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2026; ‘Recontemporary,’ Turin, 2024; ‘ZWEIHEIT,’ Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, 2020; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India, 2018; ‘The Rediscovery of the World,’ Huis Marseille Museum of Photography, Amsterdam, 2017. Her work is included in the collections of, among others, MoMA, New York; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

Viviane Sassen (Amsterdam, 1972) studied fashion design and then photography at the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) and Ateliers Arnhem. She received the Prix de Rome (2007), the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, New York (2011), and the David Octavius Hill Medal from the German Academy of Photography (2015). Recent exhibitions include: ‘Phosphor: Art & Fashion,’ Fotografiska, Stockholm, Fotografiska, Shanghai, and Fotomuseum Amsterdam (Foam), 2025 and Kyotographie, Kyoto, 2024; ‘This Body Made of Stardust,’ Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, 2025; and ‘Hot Mirror,’ Hepworth Wakefield, 2018.